This loveseat in a recent Elle Deco UK really caught my eye.
Beirut-based brand Bokja specialises in taking vintage furniture pieces and re-vamping them with gorgeous and unique 60s and 70s textiles and tapestries.
Matthew Williamson is apparently a customer – I’m wondering whether Williamson’s tapestry sofa and mirrored armchair are from here.
Bokja’s one-off pieces are available from The Quirico Company. Here are some more stunning pics from their website.
Actually it’s the fancy hotel of a couple of weeks ago, but hey, who’s counting…
On our recent trip to Vancouver we were lucky enough to be able to get a corporate rate to stay at the newly-opened Shangri-La via the Husband’s job.
The hotel was fantastically comfortable and luxurious, though to be honest the decor was not exactly my cup of tea – very luxe, very Eastern-influenced (which makes sense as it’s an Asian hotel chain) and very safe - with lots of textured brown and beige, wood veneers everywhere and the very occasional pop of red.
The most special details were the utterly spectacular chandeliers sprinkled throughout the hotel with gay abandon. There was even a chandelier in each cubicle in the bathroom next to the bar.
The hotel has been opened ahead of the 2010 Olympics and occupies the first 15 floors of the tallest building in Vancouver (seen here on a typical Pacific Northwest autumn day. ie. pissing it down with rain).
The rooms were large and filled with every technological device you could imagine, which thrilled the Husband no end.
See that slightly grey patch in the bathroom mirror (reflecting the marble shower)?
Well, it’s actually a telly. So you can watch children’s programmes while brushing your teeth.
I don’t usually like to use unknown people for ‘Go Fug Your Room’ – it’s generally far more satisfying to diss celebrities and famous designers – but I have to admit this recent photoshoot in Elle Deco UK of the New York apartment belonging to Leif Sigersen, a Danish set designer, left me rather befuddled and confused.
Sigersen is described as a collector of ‘weathered vintage pieces and quirky accessories’ who has turned his home into a ‘showcase of stunning displays’.
Or has he?
This looks like a particularly squalid student bedsit.
Since when does a pile of leather sandals piled up on a rusty radiator equal either interior design or a ‘collection’?
Aren’t kitchens meant to be for cooking? And isn’t this all a little unhygienic?
And who does all the dusting?
I think the plants must have died of depression.
So, I can just about get on board with the restrained colour palette and use of texture, though it’s not exactly my cup of tea; and there are probably some very interesting vintage pieces in with all the old junk and I genuinely think the photography (by Ditte Isager) is delicious and redolent with atmosphere.
I could probably be persuaded to classify this as conceptual art if you asked me nicely, but seriously, does it count as interior design and decor? And if it does would Elle Deco like to come and photograph our basement?
Really interested to hear your thoughts.
Can you believe it’s been three years since we first got our visas for the US?
When we first came out to Seattle we assumed that definitely be back in the UK before our visas ran out. But here we are three years later, happily settled and with no return to Europe in prospect, needing new visas. You have to leave the country to get them renewed so we’ve driven 150 miles up the freeway to spend a few days in Vancouver.
Here are a few pics from a gorgeous autumnal walk we went on yesterday in Stanley Park.
And here are a couple of links which might be of interest until I’m back properly in front of a computer (on Friday).
First up Alexandra from A Bit Late is not impressed with Kelly Wearstler’s beach house. While I don’t think I hate it as much as her previous effort (she appears to have given up raiding the British Museum) I’m not sure it has a huge amount to commend it. I haven’t yet seen the Metropolitan Home feature though.
Also our friend Marcel Wanders has apparently designed a range of Christmas decorations for Target here in the US. I had high hopes for these as he’s done good stuff before for Habitat in the UK but really, with the exception of the big red, white and silver column candles which I may have to acquire, he was phoning this in without even bothering to switch on the phone. BO-RING.
I’ve never had much of a desire to go to Miami, but all that changed when I saw this hotel. I totally adore the whimsy and wit of Marcel Wanders and his masterful use of shape and pattern, though the only thing I have that he’s designed are my gorgeous patterned storage boxes from Habitat.
The Mondrian Miami is still very ‘Miami’ with lots of shiny, lots of heavy columns and lots of huge curly chairs, but it does all look rather fun.
Design details I love include the faces on the walls, the shiny white floors, the layered monochrome patterns, the indoor and outdoor chandeliers, the strangely curving staircase and the funky modern chairs (not so keen on the faux French antique chairs, but I can see what he’s trying to do).
So, this black steel fireplace by French company Focus has apparently been voted the World’s Most Beautiful Object by the Pulchra design competition in Italy.
Thoughts? It’s impressive, but definitely not my most beautiful object (still trying to think what would be though). And this room is utterly spectacular, though that has more to do with room’s bones than the so-so decor.
What objects would you nominate?
One of the main things that really drew my eye to the Lulu Guinness spread was the magnificent Pearly Queen of Dalston wallhanging above the banquette. I love everything about it – its wit, the fact that it’s made of buttons, its quintessential Englishness, the colours – and it seemed like just that sort of thing an expat Londoner would hang over her Seattle sofa.
I even vaguely thought about commissioning one, but it soon became clear from sculptor Ann Carrington’s website that it would be way out of my league – it’s apparently a fairly important piece, purchased by the Rothschild collection in honour of the Queen’s 80th birthday, and doesn’t belong to Lulu Guinness at all, it merely served as the inspiration for her limited edition ‘Stamp Jayne’ handbag (shown to the left of the banquette picture and seemingly no longer available through her shop).
Here it is in more detail
And here are some other works by the artist, both made using thousands of tiny pearl buttons.
I wonder, though, if American readers are getting the cultural reference?
Pearly Kings and Queens are the heads of certain families in London’s East End, descended I think from Victorian costermongers (street sellers?) who decorate their black clothes with thousands of tiny buttons and do tons of work for charity.
If you like the look then these cushions here are pretty special.
I’m a little bit on the fence about this one, as it’s a little too romantically girly for my taste, but there’s still a lot to love in Lulu Guinness’ Notting Hill house.
First up the bones of the house are superb – the Victorian houses built in Notting Hill are larger and grander than in other parts of London, so the proportions are generally, as in this case, more splendid.
And there’s something about the quality of the light there, I lived in Notting Hill for twelve years and even on gloomy days it always seemed brighter and lighter than the rest of London – something to do with the white coloured houses and the sunset views to the west. But maybe it was just because I loved living there so much.
But I digress.
I love the eclecticism of the decor, the bold use of colour, the collections of objects which are clearly much loved and personal and the way the whole thing reflects LG’s own quirky feminine but slightly kitsch style. (Is she well known in the US? I haven’t come across her here. In the UK she is renowned as a handbag designer, but she also designs homewares.)
The other interesting aspect is how the house has evolved since it was last photographed in 2001 (seen here on Hidden in France) – LG has kept many of the same pieces but the style is a little more pared down and the colour palette more restrained, with much more use of white. It’s so refreshing to see a wealthy person who doesn’t throw everything out and start again every few years, but who keeps their house full of familiar, much-loved treasures.
What do you think? {All images, by the way, from Living etc}
Really my dears, she makes it all too easy.
I know we’ve been through all this before, but Ms W has a new book to promote, so therefore pics of the interior of yet another Hollywood home are doing the rounds (does she actually live in any of these houses?) and it’s the FUGLIEST yet! Quelle joie!
Ths sad thing is that from the exterior this is a beautiful LA house with a stunning pool, but now you couldn’t pay me to live amongst all this cold, hard, ersatz splendour. Money truly is wasted on some people.
Can anyone explain what I’m missing about this woman? I would genuinely love to know – at the moment it just looks to me like the Empress has new clothes.
No, she didn’t let her boys scribble on the walls, apparently this is custom-made graffiti-inspired wallpaper. Which is not to say that the boys wouldn’t have done a better job.
Like living in the British Museum, and about as comfortable.
Doesn’t it strike you as a little inconvenient to have to move half a hundredweight of assorted replica statuary every time you want to lay the table?
This is apparently Kelly’s study – such a practical place for a working designer n’est-ce pas? And those chairs would seriously freak me out.
Two further questions strike me.
– With the zebra skins and the faux decapitated heads, is Kelly channelling Eddie or could Eddie be channelling Kelly? (Though why either of them would wish to is beyond me.)
– And how on earth does a colour scheme of dark blue and dirty brass with some pink scribbles qualify one to write a book about colour (the subject of Kelly’s next magnum opus)?
Oh and for those of you in the UK and elsewhere, Kelly Wearstler is one of the most famous interior decorators in the US. I kid you not.
As you know I was never a big fan of Domino - I’m becoming more American every day, but nothing has come remotely close to replacing the British shelter magazines such as Living etc and Elle Deco in my heart – but I was looking forward to the launch of Lonny, the online magazine brainchild of former Domino Market Editor Michelle Adams and photographer Patrick Cline.
Issue 1 was launched today and I’m afraid you’ll just have to colour me rather disappointed.
First the good news.
– The online reader tool is fantastic – clear, fast and making it very easy to flip between the pages (though it seems strangely old-fashioned to just duplicate a print magazine online – if you can add hyperlinks, for example on the shopping pages, why not just do it?)
– The photographs are aces.
– The styling, though completely not to my taste, is generally excellent.
– There’s lots to read, with plenty of home tours and not too many ads.
The bad news, unfortunately, is that the whole magazine is a celebration of the fussy, over-ornate, grandma’s old knickers style that dominates American interiors magazines and which I’m sure led partially to Domino’s demise.
The front cover is spectacularly meh. I know it doesn’t have to stand out on a newstand, but really couldn’t they do better than this? If the cover of a magazine is supposed to tell you what a magazine is all about then this says is ‘fussy’ and ‘mumsy’ (do Americans understand what this means? Should I be writing ‘momsy’ instead?), which is not a decorating style I aspire to.
Inside the layout is full of the multiple fancy fonts, strange dotty lines and fussy boxes which we’ve discussed before about American magazines, though it is less busy and better organized that some.
The shopping pages feature some quite spectacularly ugly stuff.
The fashion pages are EXECRABLE. I have no words.
And there of course are loads of rooms cluttered with overdecorated repro furniture and table lamps in every direction (what is it with Americans and table lamps?)
Regardez
The one more modern home featured is about as imaginative as a Crate & Barrel catalogue
Even the home of Grace Bonney from Design*Sponge, whose taste I normally quite like, is made to look dull.
Finally our old friend Eddie Ross is back with his special brand of granny style, featuring even more zebra than he had in his New York apartment and a ton of fuss and clutter on every surface (a shame as the bare bones of his country house look absolutely amazing).
The very best news though is that we now have a great new source of ‘Go Fug Your Room’ fodder. I thereforewish Lonny Magazine many, MANY years of success.
And now, having offended most of the American online decorating establishment, I will go and do some real work.
